THE COURAGE TO LISTEN: GRETA ANDERSON'S JOURNEY
Greta Anderson (blue skirt) after her presentation, with participants
"I wanted to go places that were spiritually charged, with an open heart, really there to listen." This is what a young lady, Ms. Greta Anderson, said about her motivation on spending a year traveling around the globe. For this particular event, we were lucky enough to have one of our youth here in Minneapolis share her experiences traveling to Israel, Palestine, Turkey, and Uganda, to name just some of the countries she visited.
In her early 20s, she felt as though she wanted to do something different and decided to see how other youth live across the world. She traveled with the intent of witnessing and observing, which turned out not to be such a simple thing to do. She shared stories of three particular friendships she created, each person from different religions (Christian, Muslim, and Jewish). One of the key points she shared with us was how so many people are stuck in their own bubbles. All three of these people she met really had no concept of each other. They lived within one hour of one another, yet were totally divided by different ideas, traditions, languages, nations, and barriers. However, there was one thing they had in common, and that was their devout understanding of God. She said she reached a point where she asked herself, 'How can I be friends with these three great people, yet they cannot be friends with each other?' She realized that the answer really comes down to learning to pop those bubbles that are so easy and comfortable to be in.
Greta summed up her presentation by sharing a photo of one particular graffiti drawing she saw in the Middle East. There were various symbols in the drawing and her interpretation of it was that, "When our love is with God, we can be with all."
After the presentation, the participants broke into three groups and discussed some questions and possible answers to help resolve the barriers to realize a more connected and peaceful world. There were many young participants who also shared their inspirations for a new vision to bring positive change in their environment.
Greta Anderson is 24 years old and a recent graduate of the University of Bridgeport, where she studied graphic design and business. In her last year of study, she began to grow weary of the excess of advertisements that her peers were reading instead of literature, while the meaningful and positive content got little attention. Her senior thesis was a student created publication, which was distributed for free and discussed relevant and worldly topics, with attractive design and copy.
After her graduation, her itch to explore and experience some of the misrepresented societies for herself grew, and her desire to enter the advertisement industry shank. Post-graduation, Greta accumulated nearly a year of experience designing for a start-up magazine in New York City, where she saved up enough to travel and see several countries with her own eyes, serve the people with her own hands, and listen to peoples' real stories with an open heart.